Air-brake valve.



No. 783,734. PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905. E. I'. RICHARDSON.

AIR BRAKE VALVE.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 26. 1904.

2 SHBEZILSHEET l.

Fgfyl.

WITNESSES INVENTOR No.. 783,734. PATENTED PEB. 28, 1905.

` E. F. RICHARDSON.

AIR BRAKE VALVE.

MPLIUATION FILED MAY 26. 1904.

Fg-f- Q @@5/6@ Q i No. 783,734.

lllniiirieiu crampi-i izlatented February 28, 1905..

llamarme @trice EDWIN F. RICHARDSON, UF (ir-RilGNVlLl'ilC, PENNSYLVANIA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 783,734, dated February 28, 1905.

Application iilcd May 26,1904. Serial No. 209,836.

Be it known that l, EnwiN li. liri'oimnnsdx, of Greenville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Airdirakc vValve, of which the following a full, clear, and exact descrilition, reference being` had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l shows in vertical section a triplevalve mechanism provided with my device. lig. 2 is a sectional view, en a larger scale, showing a part. Fig. f3 is a bottom plan view of the upper part of trilile-valve meclv anism, taken as if in section on the line lll lll. Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of the part shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of the engincers brake-valve provided with my improvement and shown in ruiming position, and Figs. (i and 7 are respectively a side elevation and a plan view of the bleek l as shown in Fig. 5.

In air-brake mechanism heretofore employed in practice it has not been possible to recharge the auxiliary reservoirs with air without lirst releasing` the brakes, and although attempts have been made to overcome this dil'licnlty, which has limited the usefulness of airbrake valves, so far as I know i none of them have heretofore been capable of successful practical use, for the reason that they involve complication of the apparatus or interfere with the normal operation of the v air-brake mechanism.

desirable to make to such engineers valve is to provide means for constrictingl the passage to the trainqiipe when my improvement is applied to the operation of short trains, and for this purpose l prefer to set in the traintion.

pipe passage il a valve-plug il, which may be tnrned so as to expose a large port 5 when it is not desired to constrict the passage 3 or to present a smaller port 6 when a eonstricted opening is desired for the purpose of limit ingI the volume of air passing to the trainpipe, as is desirable in the operation of my improvement with short trains.

7 is the connection of the train-pipe to the triple valve.

8 is the triplevalve piston, and 9 the piston-head, which whenin the released position (shown in Fig. il) opens a port l0 and ai'lords communication by way of a passage il between tlie trainpipe and the auxiliary reservoir, the connection on which is indicated'at 12. lllhen the pressure is exhausted from the train-pipe as in the ordinary operation of the valve, the piston-head 9 moves to the left in liig. jl, and thus closes the port 10, cutting oil communication between the train-pipe and the auxiliary reservoir and establishing connection between the auxiliary reservoir and the brake-cylinder for the purpose of'setting the brakes, and it has heretofore in practice not been possible to rei'istablish the connection between the train-pipe and the auxiliary reservoir without again opening the port l() by moving the valve-piston, and thus releasing the brakes. My invention makes it possible to establish this communication between the train-pipe and the auxiliary reservoir withont moving the valve-piston to released posi- For this purpose l employ a by-pass 13, which leads to the space back of the pisfon-head 9 of the triple valve and communicates at its lower end, through a port Vl-l, with the passage ll or with the train-pipe and has an automatically-actingcheck-valve l5, preferably made inthe form of a steel ball, which is set in an enlarged portion Y16 of the by-'pass and is conii ned therein by a tapped plug 117. The end of this plug lT and the opposite end of the chamber lf are rounded, so as to allord seats for the valve l5. 'lhis valve normally rests by gravity on the lower seat and cuts oll' communication between the by-pass and the train-pipe.

ln the operation of the air-brake system if the engineer should desire to recharge the IOO auxiliary reservoir without releasing the brakes he moves the handle of the engineers valve from service position to running position. This motion connects the trainfpipe with the source of air at the engine and admits a limited supply of compressed air to the train-pipe. The pressure of this limited supply of air acting upon the valve 15 is suicient to raise this valve from its lower seat and to permit the discharge of air through the by-pass and through the chamber of the piston 8 to the auxiliary reservoir` but is not suliicient to move the piston-head 9 far enough to open the port 10. To accomplish this result, the weight of the valve 15 is made such that it will oppose less resistance to the air than the friction' of the valve-piston 8 within its chamber. .ln this way communication is established between the air-pressure in the train-pipe and the auxiliary reservoir without moving the valve-piston S to released position, and therefore without releasing the brakes. lf, however,.the engineer should desire to release the brakes, he will move the handle of the engineers valve to -full release position, thereby admitting the full pressure of the air to the train-pipe. This pressure is sufficient not only to unseat the valve 15 from its lower seat, but to force it against its upper seat, thus closing the by-pass 13 and causing the full pressure of the train-pipe to be exerted upon the piston-head 9, thus moving the piston to the released position (shown in Fig. 1) and opening the port 10.

The triple valves ordinaril y employed have a graduating device in which the piston of the triple valve is provided with an independently-movable graduating-valve rendered capable of a short preliminary motion suflicient to cut off communication between the auxiliary reservoir and the brake-cylinder without moving' the triple-valve piston itself. The motion of this graduating-valve is effected by moving the handle of the engineers valve from service position to lap position. This is not affected or changed by the use of my improvement, for by having' the check-valve 15 of such weight that it will oppose greater resistance to the air-pressure than the packingring of the gradeating-valve on the triplevalve piston the graduatingvalve will be moved by bringing' the engineers valve to lap position without moving the cheek-valve 15, and therefore without admitting the pressure through the by-pass to the auxiliary reservoir.

lVithin the scope'of my invention persons skilled in the' art will be able to change the construction in many ways, both as to the construction and location of the by-pass and its valve and in other particulars, for the purpose of adapting it to different types of triple valve. All such modilications I intend to cover in my claims, since W' hat I claim is- 1. Means for recharging an auxiliary reservoir without releasing the brakes, comprising in combination with a triple valve, auxiliary reservoir and train-pipe, a valved, recharging by-pass back of the triple-valve piston-head, and means for automatically opening said by-pass on the application thereto of pressure less than required to move the triple valve to released position; substantially as described.

Q. Means for recharging an auxiliary reservoir without releasing the brakes, comprising in combination with a triple valve and its graduating-valve. the auxiliary reservoir and train-pipe, a valved, recharging bypass in rear of the triple-valve piston, and means for automatically opening said by-pass on the application thereto of pressure less than required to move the triple valve to released position and somewhat greater than that required to move the graduating-valve; substantially as described.

3. Means for recharging an auxiliary reservoir without releasing the brakes, comprising an auxiliary reservoir, atrain-pipe, atriple valve having a by-pass in rear of the piston thereof, and a valve in said by-pass adapted to seat at either end of its travel; substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

EDWIN F. RICHARDSON. Witnesses:

J oHN MILLER, H. M. CoRwIN. 

